SALEM — Lynn resident Gina Curcio, a professor at Salem State University who worked as a corrections officer before beginning her teaching career, was granted tenure by the university.
Curcio started her teaching career at North Shore Community College in 2014, the same year she began her work on the Shannon Grant Program, a program funded by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security that focuses on reducing youth gang problems in at-risk cities. In a telephone interview Monday afternoon, Curcio said that working on a 2015 report on youth gang activity was one of the most important pieces of work she has done in the city.
“The point was to understand the gang problem in Lynn, and the 2015 report was the first time any kind of report like that was done in Lynn,” she said.
Curcio currently teaches Intro to Criminal Justice, Criminal Investigation, Correction, Gender in the Criminal Justice System, and Criminal Law at the university. She said that her interest in criminal justice, which varies from gang violence to gender and race bias mitigation, all began from a class she took as a high school sophomore at Lynn English.
“My research interests are also pretty varied … My professional experience before going on to graduate school was working in corrections, so a lot of my earlier research focused on corrections and re-entry. I’m also interested in gangs, especially gangs in mid-sized cities like Lynn and Springfield, and also gender and race in the criminal justice system,” Curcio said. “It was, interestingly enough, actually a Street Law class I took as a sophomore at Lynn English High School, and it was more broad than criminal justice, but a certain part of that class focused on criminal law and procedure, and that’s really what made me super interested in the criminal justice field.”
Curcio also worked on the Massachusetts Uniform Citation Data Analysis Grant in 2020, which examined racial disparities in police traffic stops on state and local levels. In her classes, Curcio said that she aims to remind students how important a strong criminal justice system is for society.
“Especially today, I think just reiterating how important criminal justice is, because we wouldn’t be able to function as a society without a criminal justice system, so I think people sometimes forget that we really need a criminal justice system in order for society to function,” she said. “The major goals of the criminal justice system are to do some of the important things like preventing crime, protecting the public, supporting crime victims, and obviously, the big one, holding criminal offenders accountable. The criminal justice system has a really important job in keeping society going. That’s something that sometimes people forget.”
Curcio said that she also aims to remind her students that a career in criminal justice is not limited to “obvious” careers like law enforcement, corrections, or working in court positions.
“I think there’s also a lot of misconceptions about what kinds of careers you can have if you major in criminal justice,” she said. “There’s the obvious ones like law enforcement – local, state, or federal law enforcement, corrections, or working in various positions in the courts, but the field also has a lot of other programs: victim advocacy, offender reentry and rehabilitation, security, cyber crime, the list goes on.”
“I think there’s a lot of options for careers for criminal justice majors, that some might not be as aware of as I would like,” Curcio said.
As a tenured professor, Curcio said she aims to grow passion for criminal justice in her students and help them carve their careers in the field.
“Our program is intended to help students develop critical thinking skills, good communication skills, and expert skills, which are super important in every career but especially in criminal justice,” Curcio said. “I want to be able to instill that passion or excitement for the discipline in my students, inspire them to work in the field and make a difference in the lives of others, and also help them develop their sense of purpose and direction for what career in this field they think they’ll excel in.”
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at [email protected].
